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January 22, 2013

SEC Names Martinez Chief of Market Intelligence

Office collects and evaluates the tips, complaints and referrals that come into the agency

The SEC announced Tuesday that Vincente L. Martinez has been named chief of the Enforcement Division’s Office of Market Intelligence, which collects and evaluates the tips, complaints and referrals that come into the agency.

Martinez was one of the first assistant directors in the SEC’s Office of Market Intelligence, which was created in 2010 as part of a major restructuring of the Enforcement Division, according to the SEC. He left the SEC in 2011 to become the first director of the whistleblower office at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and will return to the SEC next month to begin his new role.

Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, who plans to leave the agency soon, said in a statement that “Our Office of Market Intelligence employs next-generation technology and data analysis to inform and drive our enforcement effort and priorities in the years to come. Vince has the vision and dedication to lead that effort given his talent, commitment, and prior service to the SEC.”

Adam Storch, managing executive of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, added in the same statement that “Vince understands the task at hand and is ready to further leverage the valuable intelligence we get from the public, cultivate our relationships with our regulatory partners, and tackle the increasing sophistication of the schemes victimizing investors.”

Martinez said in the same statement that he's "honored and pleased to rejoin the SEC staff and have this opportunity to advance the Office of Market Intelligence’s meaningful contributions to the protection of investors by further developing our ability to proactively identify risks and ferret out misconduct.”

Martinez previously worked for eight years in the SEC’s Enforcement Division, beginning in 2003 as a staff attorney and later becoming a senior counsel. He served on a task force devoted to pursuing accounting frauds. When he shifted to the Office of Market Intelligence, he played a key role in developing Enforcement Division and SEC-wide policies and procedures for handling tips, complaints and referrals. He helped cultivate cooperative relationships with other government agencies and self-regulatory organizations.

Martinez received two SEC awards in 2011 (Chairman’s Award for Excellence and Business Operations Award) and an Enforcement Division Director’s Award in 2007.

Prior to joining the SEC staff, Martinez was a litigator and corporate lawyer in private practice for six years. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.

Lori Walsh, who is currently serving as the acting chief of the Office of Market Intelligence, will continue her leadership role as deputy chief of the office, and the SEC says “will provide an instrumental contribution as the architect of its risk assessment tools and capabilities.”